Today, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Assumption of Our Lady into heaven. This youngest dogma of the Catholic Church, proclaimed on November 1, 1950, concludes the Church’s teaching on Mary: At the end of her earthly pilgrimage, God brought her home into eternity. Her being in heaven with body and soul is a unique gift of God’s grace, but it is also due to her vocation and the loyalty by which she lived each it each day of her life.

At the same time, the Blessed Mother’s assumption marks a new beginning for her. Mary is now in eternal life. She is enveloped by the joy and blessedness that comes from the encounter with God and with all who are in communion with this loving God. Being in heaven doesn’t mean that our earthly work is done. Quite the contrary, Mary’s mission can now assume its universal dimensions: “Taken up to heaven”–as Vatican II reminds us–“she did not lay aside her salvific duty … By her maternal love she cares for the brethren of her son who still journey on earth.” This is what we experience when we visit the Confidentia Shrine. Our Mother and Queen welcomes us, offers us graces of home, inner transformation, and mission zeal. The many petitions in the jar are a silent but eloquent witness that Our Lady, since her assumption into heaven is now able to exercise fully her motherhood in the order of grace, without interruption. Her powerful intercession at the throne of God gives us confidence in her. Many of us have experienced this at numerous times.

But let us not forget to ask her today especially for the grace to one day be united with her in heaven. In light of our ultimate home, may we also grow in our understanding that some of our needs and intentions are answered contrary to our expectations so we can understand better the transience of all earthly things. In Heavenwards, Father Kentenich teaches us to pray:

Teach me to live each day so that my dying
becomes easy, as befits an heir of heaven.
Teach me to judge myself each night in such a way
that after death I may see you and God.

May our Confidentia Queen continue to accompany us on our earthly pilgrimage and increase our longing for our heavenly home.

Happy and blessed feast day,

Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary

Greetings from the Confidentia Shrine,

Those who visited our jubilee shrine recently may have noticed that it is adorned with a new banner. It invites us to gather in Lamar to celebrate the 60 years of Confidentia Shrine blessings.

The logo on the banner captures exactly that. The blue shrine graphic highlights a golden Father symbol, a special treasure for the Texas Schoenstatt Family. The palm tree identifies the locality of the shrine on the shore of the Texas Riviera. The golden number 60 reminds us of the Blessed Mother’s loyalty to this place of grace as it weathered many storms, tornados, and also listening to the innumerable heartaches of spiritual storms and dangers.

Our Confidentia Queen has drawn us to her cradle of sanctity where she accepted our contributions to the capital of grace, a prerequisite for her fruitfulness from the shrine.

Our Gift in Return for the celebration of the jubilee on October 19 will be the renovated campus surrounding the shrine. Countless hours of physical labor have been offered by you ever since Harvey. Likewise, many of you have given monetary donations. All is very much appreciated and we sisters pray that your generosity will be abundantly rewarded by our Confidentia Queen.

Look once more at the Father symbol. It was Sr. M. Joselinde, who received it from Father Kentenich in 1967. He had kept the symbol in his office for three days prior to giving it to her. He told her: It is a beautiful eye, a work of art. But it must always be a symbol for a reality: “The Father sees his child. … Father sees me, Father loves me, Father knows me.”

These words can be a lifelong program for the covenant partners of our Confidentia Mother and Queen.

Why not try it out?!

Your Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary

June 28, 2019

Greetings from the Confidentia Shrine,

And welcome back to ordinary time! That’s how the season after Pentecost to the Sunday of Christ, the King is called in the Liturgical Year. In the secular world, much of this period is vacation time, a season to get away from day-to-day chores and to devote time specifically to relaxation. This can involve travel or a stay-at-home vacation, nowadays called a staycation. Whatever you do, please also feel free to include a refueling of your soul by visiting the Confidentia Shrine during its jubilee year.

In numerous stories and poems of her new publication Kate Otto’s Legacy – Daily Life for a Schoenstatt Mother, the author gives witness to the transformative power of the Confidentia Shrine in her life. The booklet is available in our gift shop.

We are happy to host camps for young women, high school students, and younger girls during June and are grateful to the moms who accompany their daughters and volunteer as chaperones. Please pray for the success of these vacation days in the shadow of the shrine.

It’s also high time to share with you more details about the celebration planned for the 60th anniversary of the Confidentia Shrine on Saturday, October 19, 2019. We will begin around 11 am and close with a Holy Mass of Thanksgiving at 4 pm officiated by Bishop Mulvey of Corpus Christi. Please save the date and invite your family and friends to this Shrine Festival which includes a BBQ lunch, games, talks, info booths as well as the possibility to visit our MTA in the shrine and thank her for the past 60 years of blessings.

the number 361-729-1868 is not yet a functioning number for our house, but unfortunately it still appears on most caller id’s. If you want to reach us by land phone, it is necessary to use the number 361-729-2019.

“Thanks, a thousand thanks to you, to God shall be now and for all eternity.”

Contact Us

Please note:
The number 361-729-1868 is not yet a functioning number for our house, but unfortunately it still appears on most caller id’s.If you want to reach us by land phone,it is necessary to use the number 361-729-2019.